


Happy birthday Mr Wizard

by cutebutpsyco



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence: Post Avengers Endgame, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Birthday Fluff, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Past Pepperony, Surprise Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:13:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27621194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: “Christine told me it’s your birthday and I’ve been looking for a way to thank you since forever so I thought… This was stupid,” He said, running a hand in his dishevelled hair. Whoever called him a genius had never seen Tony trying to make a move on a powerful and attractive Dumbledore cosplayer, apparently. “I’m sorry.”
Relationships: Christine Palmer & Stephen Strange, Christine Palmer & Tony Stark, Harley Keener & Tony Stark, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 4
Kudos: 74





	Happy birthday Mr Wizard

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I want to thank tumblr user **kevinthewoman** for their prompt: _Hi, I just wanted to support you, I love your work on tumblr, and I know its really hard right now with covid-19. If you'd like to wright an fluffy ironstrange story of your choice that would be cool [...]_  
>  mixed with one of **ironstrangeprompts** from tumblr which is: _Tony learns just how bad an idea it is to scare a sorcerer when he throws a surprise party for Stephen._  
>  I started to write this around the beginning of November because I remembered this was Stephen's birth month, but apparently today is the (fanon) date when the Supreme Sorcerer was born so I decided it was the right day to post it.  
> Hope you'll enjoy this!
> 
> As always, nothing belongs to me, the title is the stupidest thing ever and this hasn't been beta read.

It took him forever, but now it didn’t matter, that was Tony’s thought. Sure, he’d like to know it before, but apparently whoever he asked just told him that it was in November and that was all. It was crazy if you’d asked the billionaire. How could the people who were the closest to Mr Magic have no idea when his birthday was? It was sad, and despite everything, Tony knew that the last thing Strange needed was more sadness in his life. 

He couldn’t tell why, but there was something in the other man that made him think about the fact that Strange was sad and alone more times than not. And well, at least for the alone part he knew he was right because every time he “accidentally” happened to be around the Sanctum, he always found the Sorcerer all by himself. And he didn’t like that for the man who effectively saved humanity. Sure, he was the one who snapped, but it would have been everything for nothing if either Strange didn’t put him on the right path or saved him after the power of six of the Infinity Stones started to flow through him. 

The man deserved to have someone to speak with, or, better, he deserved even more, but Tony was sure that he wouldn’t have accepted anything in return but a friend. And so that was what Stark was intended to be. And not only because he was intriguing and funny to be around. Strange was so similar to him, the brief conversations they shared did nothing but prove that much, something Tony had never experienced, not even with Rhodey. And that was weird, having someone who could understand him and not only because their lives were so similar and yet so different but because there was something, something that the billionaire couldn’t name but that hoped the other man understood too, even if he was doing everything to avoid the genius and, especially, his new mission to celebrate the wizard. 

So he decided that Strange deserved something that everybody would have deserved: a party. But, considering that the wizard avoided every other celebration, it needed to be something personal, and something secret. And that was how Tony Stark, genius, playboy, philanthropist and billionaire ended up Googling the Sorcerer’s name. It was a poor move, he had to admit it, but it wasn’t like he could show up and try to steal his driving licence, which, very likely, the doctor didn’t have, if the information about his car crash was reliable, Tony saw his hands, it didn’t require a genius to understand that the info was. 

As always, Wikipedia proved itself to be completely useless, though, because, apparently, the internet didn’t know the only thing he was looking for. No info about his birthday, nothing about his drinking habits, nothing if not a lot of hyperlinks to some medical procedures and some background story of his childhood. God, whoever wrote that page had no idea about how Strange figured out the sparkling hands trick either. That was unfortunate, but Tony Stark wasn’t the kind of man to give up at the smallest inconvenience so after filling the blank spaces in Strange’s Wikipedia, he went back to the results. And that was when he found the name of someone who could have helped him without, hopefully, selling him out. 

“Doctor Stephen Strange and Doctor Christine Palmer on Palmer-Strange technique and how the studies have been interrupted shortly after Strange’s incident six years ago,” Was the title of one of the numerous articles he found looking under the news section of his research. Apparently, Strange didn’t only save the world but continued doing medicine as far as his hands let him. According to the article, the technique not only was groundbreaking but could be extremely helpful for the Sorcerer too who declared wasn’t interested in undergoing it. The article itself was captivating, but what focused all of Tony’ attention was the picture of the two doctors, mostly because he sort of knew the woman. She was there, after Thanos’s defeat, she was the one who helped Tony, and very likely she was the reason why he was still alive. Strange called her immediately after Stark snapped his fingers. 

And she was the source in “if you want to know something, get to the source” about Stephen Vincent - wow, that second name sounded really fancy - Strange. Once again, it didn’t take long for Tony to find her email address and half an hour later he was getting ready to meet Dr Christine Palmer with the excuse of wanting to propose her a research job for Stark Med. Not that he didn’t want to, she was brilliant and he was always open to new research fields, but mostly because it wasn’t the main reason why he wanted to meet her. Not that anyone needed to know that much, especially not Stephen if the conversation ever came up. Ok, that was really, really stupid, and if he wanted to know more about the Sorcerer all he had to do was just go and ask him, but it was also the easiest way and Stark usually didn’t work with the easiest ways. 

\--

“Dr Palmer,” He said, approaching the woman the moment she walked through the doors of Tony’s favourite coffee shop in New York. Yes, sure, he had entire buildings created with the only purpose of having job conversations, but, somehow, he always preferred the more casual setting of a mundane place, especially when work was the last thing he wanted to speak about. “Thank you for meeting me with such short notice.”

The woman looked tired, her pale skin was marked by dark circles around her hazel eyes and her chestnut hair was tied in a messy ponytail which said a lot about where she came from, despite what totally looked like an extenuating shift at the hospital, though, the smile she addressed him was bright and kind. 

“Dr Stark,” She said, extending her hand over the table in the further corner that Tony took for himself. The last things he needed were fans or journalists to see he was there, especially with an attractive woman. He was still trying to keep the divorce a secret, despite Pepper showing up to numerous charity events side by side with Happy. Tony wasn’t even angry about the fact that the two of them were dating, he was only surprised he didn’t realize it before. “It’s a pleasure.”

“Please, call me Tony,” He answered before indicating the chair in front of him and calling the waitress. They placed their orders rapidly and then Tony went back looking at Christine. “I think we never had the occasion to be introduced to each other, but you are the one I have to thank for this,” He smiled, indicating himself, alive and breathing despite the scars all over the right part of his body and face. “Stephen told me what you did after the Snap.”

“I did what every other doctor would have done,” Another of her bright smiles crossed the woman’s lips. “I did what Stephen would have done if he could have.” 

She chewed her bottom lip as if she was afraid of having said too much, her eyes focused once again on her hands folded against the light wooden table between them. “I mean…”

“He told me about the incident,” He interrupted her. The last thing Tony wanted was for the doctor to be uncomfortable about what she could tell him about Stephen especially considering that knowing things about him was half of the reason for that meeting. She nodded and looked like she was going to say something when the waitress appeared once again with two big cups of coffee and numerous cupcakes and doughnuts. The questioning glance in Christine’s eyes didn’t go unnoticed. “I didn’t know which one you'd prefer,” was all the explanation the genius gave to her before taking a white chocolate and walnuts doughnut and biting into it trying not to moan in pleasure at the sweet taste. There was a reason why that was his favourite place, but he wasn’t sure Christine needed to know how much he loved their doughnuts. “Anyways, back to business, as I told you, I’d like to finance whatever research you are currently working on, but this is not the main reason why I called you here.”

She looked at him over the rim of her mug and raised an eyebrow, as if she was expecting something in return, maybe. 

“If it’s for what happened at the Compound,” She started. “As I was saying before, it’s my job, I don’t need you to pay for some research just to feel good with your consciousness or something.”

“It’s not that either, it’s something completely different, to be honest,” He answered, immediately. He didn’t like the idea of her thinking that he was somehow doing just out of he couldn’t even tell what. He was grateful to her, but he also thought that her and Stephen’s publication was worthy of more economical help out of the love of knowledge. He would have offered her the same even if she didn’t save her life that day. He ran a hand in his hair before continuing: “Ok, this is going to be embarrassing, but Stephen and I grew closer since the battle against Thanos and well, I’d like to know him better. But he has all of this mystical thing around him and I guessed…”

“Is Tony Stark asking for dating advice? To me?” She sounded sincerely surprised and well, Tony wasn’t actually asking for dating advice in the general term of it, it was more like, how to let your resident wizard understand that you saw him more than just a friend. 

“Ok, this was a bad idea and you are practically a stranger, I found your email on Google,” really, taking a break from being a playboy was totally showing. “I don’t need dating advice, I need Stephen advice, ok?”

Christine laughed and rolled her eyes to the ceiling before starting to nib at a salted caramel cupcake taking all the time in the world to answer him. “Ok, I think I’m an expert in Stephen Strange.”

\--

Tony had no idea if he was either extremely lucky or unlucky, but apparently, Strange’s birthday was in a week or so, and that meant that he had just the right time to organize everyone’s favourite thing in the world: a surprise birthday party. 

He didn’t exactly ask Christine if Stephen liked them, but, once again, only party poopers hated a good surprise party, and Strange didn’t strike him that way. Well, he hoped. Mostly because once he got the Magic Three working on it, it wasn’t like he could step back. 

“Are you sure he won’t, you know, send you in a hellish dimension of pain for the rest of your days?” Harley asked, and, ok, maybe it was just the Magical Duo who was excited about the idea, but Harley came all the way from Tennessee so, maybe, he found the idea, at least, entertaining. 

“Like the one you came from?” Tony asked back, flashing the young man with a smirk. He didn’t like to admit it, but he missed the kid and missed having seen him growing up. The last time he saw him was at his wedding, and the difference between the ten-year-old boy he met on a cold night and the twenty-one-years-old now standing in front of him was astonishing. He stuck his tongue out at him and went back not doing what he was supposed to do. 

On the other hand, Peter and Morgan were having the time of their lives selecting decorations from whatever party-specialized website the teen had found on his tablet. It was good, seeing that side of the SpiderBoy instead of the beaten up one that came back from what was supposed to be one of his best memories from high school. If only Tony wasn’t still recovering, he’d have had Quentyn Beck’s head like a hunting trophy. Stephen told him he would have taken care of the downfall of the leaked video where Peter’s alter ego got revealed to the public, but while Stark trusted the other man, he still couldn’t help to be worried about the kid. Which was why he was doing everything in his power to delay his entrance in the official roster of the Avengers. 

“Do you know, I have no idea what’s going on between you and the doctor, but when I’ve been around you speaking about him, there’s something, in your eyes, something I didn’t see the first time I met you,” Harley said, his light eyes were fixed on the wall where Tony was thinking to have one of Peter’s friends, Miles, painting a mural of Dr Strange. MJ already sketched an idea and was now examining her fine line art. 

“What? Nothing is going on. We are friends and I happened to know when his birthday is,” He answered, shrugging. Tony was well aware of the fact that he couldn’t lie to the young man by his side. So he decided that the right thing to do was to laugh it off. 

“Yeah, whatever,” Harley rolled his eyes and then went back to look at the list Tony gave him. “Do you really want me to convince Wong to be on board with this? Why me? I met the man twice.”

“Yeah, and he liked you, well, he didn’t hate you, which, in his book means that he liked you.”

“I’m doing this, but you will tell Strange the truth about this birthday circus.”

\--

“Are you sure the doctor will arrive?” Natasha was leaning against the bar which, as always, the woman claimed as hers. Not that Tony could or would complain. She made the best Martinis he had ever tasted. He had no idea how or why she was so bartending skilled, but still. 

“Yes, Harley convinced Wong to be our bait, and I know they are kind of running late, but I think they’ll arrive, sooner or later.”

“And do you trust Harley?” These were Bruce’s words who was, at the moment, busying himself in a conversation with Christine Palmer. Just like the first time he met her, he couldn’t deny that the woman was gorgeous. Chestnut hair in a messy bun with some strands running free to frame her pale face almost completely make-up free which made her hazel eyes shine in the cold lights of the Avengers Tower main room. If he noticed her glancing at Bruce when the doctor turned to look at Tony, he wasn’t going to tell. 

“I mean, I let Morgan go to Disneyland with him, so yes, I guess,” He laughed. Bruce was probably the only person who really knew about how Tony met Harley and was the person who convinced the genius to contact him after he came back from space after Thanos’s Snap. He knew that Tony would have trusted the kid from Tennessee with his own life. Not that he didn’t with Peter, but that was different, way, way more different. Peter always seemed to be someone to protect, someone who needed to be looked after, while Harley was maybe playing the role of the adult. He was snarky and insufferable more times than not, but he treated Tony as if they were on the same level and Tony thought of him as a friend more than a kid. 

“I did what I could,” He said, and Tony wondered how he heard what they were speaking about. Or maybe Tony was just simply being that blunt that everyone could see that he was anxious about Stephen not showing up. Once again, though, Christine didn’t tell him anything about Stephen not liking those kinds of parties when he invited her so he guessed that it was okay for the both of them. 

\--

Stephen was having a hell of a day. And, for once, being his birthday had nothing to do with that. It was weird, remembering how excited he used to get for that day when he was a child and then completely hating the guts out of that celebration. He didn’t see any point in celebrating the day when he was born, he couldn’t understand why people were excited about it and which was the entire point of celebrating, but, once again, he just stored it as something extremely childish, something that after a certain age it didn’t even make any sense at all. This was the reason why he pretended to have almost forgotten about that date. 

Which was why he couldn't help but smile when he woke up and nobody wished him a happy birthday. It was the first time that it didn’t happen: he made the mistake to tell his former colleagues at the hospital when he was born and since that moment he always had to walk the hallway trying to understand how to answer to the people who wished him a happy birthday. It wasn’t like he knew what to do but to look extremely awkward and stare at the person who said that much. 

So yeah, for the first time in his life he was happy people actually forget about his birthday or, well, he wasn’t bothered by them remembering even if it was weird that Christine didn’t text him. He decided not to put too much of his mind into it, and just went on in his day which revolved around an interdimensional meeting which seemed to never stop and a breach through which a shadow demon had escaped for some extra-dimensional planet. A pretty boring Wednesday if only it wasn’t for the fact that the moment he went back to Kamar-Taj to take a shower before heading back in New York, he found himself face to face with a young woman with silver skin and hair so dark that it seemed made out of pure night sky. Wong and Master Hamil were speaking with her, but when Stephen approached she looked at him with daunting green pupil-less eyes which seemed to be looking for a way into the Sorcerer’s soul. He could see terror and a silent plea in them and, for this reason, the only thing he could do was to listen to Wong explaining to him how she escaped from a planet far, far away from Earth where an evil overlord killed every magical user. Apparently, her home planet was under Kamar-Taj jurisdiction and Stephen had to call all the Masters from the temple to fight this evil overlord.

Which would have been extremely exciting, if he weren’t so tired that the only thing he wanted to do was face planting into his bed and sleep for the next week or so. And that was what he was planning to do if only Wong wouldn't have stopped him, one foot already across the portal. 

“Stephen,” He said, and, despite looking just as tired as Strange knew he was, he kept that coolness in his movements. He was also looking at his phone, which made goosebumps appear all over Stephen’s skin. That was not a good sign. “I’ve been looking for you.”

“Please, if it’s another emergency can it wait until tomorrow?” He asked, knowing far too well that he would have run headfirst into it, didn’t matter what. 

“An attack at the Avengers Tower,” Wong answered, and Stephen knew that, despite everything, he was going to portal himself there to help his not-really-teammates. “I’ll come with you.”

Stephen nodded, stepping through the portal ready to battle whatever villain of the week decided to show up on the terribly tiring day he just hoped he could leave at his back. He could feel the familiar weight of the Cloak on his shoulders, moving itself to a nonexisting wind as to emphasize his own already - he guessed - threatening presence and when his boot got in contact with the deep grey marble of the Avengers Tower main room he already had shining mandalas forming around his fists. A moment later, another pair of boots confirmed Stephen that Wong too arrived so he let the portal collapse behind them and looked around, ready to face whatever was waiting for them on this side of the gateway. 

“Surprise!” Morgan Stark appeared from behind a leather sofa, her scream mirrored by numerous voices that Stephen could associate with the faces of friends and co-workers if only he wasn’t ready for a fight. Because the moment he saw something moving behind the sofa, an orange blast left his hands, going to meet with the potential threat he spotted with his peripheral. 

Tony jumped in front of his daughter, pushing the young girl out of arm range, a nanotech shield to stop whatever attack Stephen threw at them with his prosthetic arm. “Are you insane?!” He screamed, once Stephen realized what just happened and couldn’t help a blush to form on his pale cheeks. If Tony thought that it was adorable, it was something for another day. 

“I’m… I’m… sorry,” The Sorcerer said, stepping back as if trying to look for a hiding spot which he rapidly found in the hallway that was opening at his backs. And that was the moment when silence fell on the entire room. Tony looked around as if waiting for somebody to do something, but all he got in response were Christine and Harley signalling him to follow the doctor.  
Which he did, without any hesitation, shortly after the moment when the surprise wore off. 

The sounds of the party started shortly after Tony left in the hallway. It didn’t take long for him to find Stephen, in one of the meeting rooms just behind the corner, too far to hear the people in the main room, but not as far to let Tony really believe he was trying not to be found. “Stranger Danger.”

“Stark,” Came to the answer, and that was weird. Stephen never called him Stark after the final battle. He thought this time he did out of shame and hated the idea. “I had a terrible day, so if you are here to kick my ass because I tried to attack your daughter, we can reschedule.”

“Actually no, I would have rather preferred if Morgan wasn’t involved, but I guess that’s my fault for throwing you a surprise party,” He was honest, despite still not understanding how someone could not love them. 

“What?”

“Christine told me it’s your birthday and I’ve been looking for a way to thank you since forever so I thought… This was stupid,” He said, running a hand in his dishevelled hair. Whoever called him a genius had never seen Tony trying to make a move on a powerful and attractive Dumbledore cosplayer, apparently. “I’m sorry.”

Stephen looked up at him, and there was something similar to a smirk on his lips, something that lit up his eyes of that undefinable colour. “I’m not big on birthdays, that’s all. But it wasn’t stupid, quite the opposite, I think it’s kind of cute. Sappy, but cute. Still, I don’t understand why you would.”

Tony tilted his head on the side, mirroring Strange’s smirk while the stupidest answer ever started to take form in his mind. “See, why is sort of part of this. It’s supposed to be your present,” He smiled, stepping back while he moved his left hand as to point to himself. “I am your present if you’d like to come out with me.”

“Out as in out from this room and this embarrassing situation or out as in on a date?” Everyone else would have thought Stephen was asking seriously, but Tony had the pleasure to know him in the past months, and it was clear that he was mocking him. 

“Yes,” He answered and Strange raised his eyebrow. 

“You are stealing my line, douchebag.” Tony really wanted to tell him something, he tried to look for a smart remark in his mind, but when he found himself close, way too close to Strange’s stupid perfect face everything in his mind turned into mud and when the Sorcerer pushed his lips against the genius’s his mind told him that, at the moment, a stupid remark was the last thing he needed. 

And maybe all his mind could think about was _note to self: never, ever again throw a surprise party for the hot wizard_ but that was a note for future Tony, the present one was extremely busy.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, kudos and comments are appreciated!
> 
>  **wanna say hi?** come on tumblr [@myrxellabaratheon](http://myrxellabaratheon.tumblr.com/) and [@ironstrange-is-the-endgame](http://ironstrange-is-the-endgame.tumblr.com/)  
>  **do you want a fic written by me?** Click on my Ironstrange Tumblr and follow the instructions in the pinned post.


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